Brussels, 06/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - In Paris on Friday 6 December, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, urged Mercosur to decide whether it plans to take trade talks forward with the EU. “Several Mercosur countries do not support” the talks with the EU, but “Brazil wants an agreement, wants to move forward”, Barroso said in an interview with AFP (our translation throughout).
“Our Mercosur friends must see whether they are or are not able to advance together” in these talks “or whether a few countries want to move forward on their own”, Barroso said, indicating that the EU preferred to negotiate with “all Mercosur countries” for the establishment of a free-trade treaty, something that has been on the table for several years. He explained: “Our vision is region-to-region”. Mercosur and the EU agreed in January that both parties would present their market opening offer by the end of the year in order to take negotiations forward, negotiations that were re-opened in 2010 after six years of stagnation. (LC/transl.jl)